Pincushion & Prim quilts

The little vintage chicken is my only pincushion, I bought it only a few months ago at an antique shop, just love the little chick.

And here are two prim quilts I made inspired by a tea towel stitchery by Linda Brannock. Both are needle turn applique and machine quilted. I've used the darker version to teach applique since the pieces are big and go together fast.

Yahoo must be having troubles today, since none of my messages have posted to my group so if you have joined, I will welcome you here and hope to hear from you later on the group.

Family Branch

I meant to upload this pic on the last blog to show you the Family Branch quilt or wallhanging of Lynda Hall's that I had made for my boss. Added a little needle felting, my boss also has a sheep ranch so I thought adding the felting would be just perfect. She loved it.

I don't always do mud quilts

Here's a pic of a wool table mat that I am still working on, needs to be quilted. I was inspired by a pattern of an antique quilt a friend sent me and just had to do it in wool. Wish I had more white wool to make a full quilt, but that will be another day.

Lynda Hall

If you have never seen Lynda Hall's work, you should check out her website,
http://primitivepiecesbylynda.com/intro.html

Lots and I mean lots of primitive quilt patterns and two of her newest quilts are under Keeping Room, one a huge basket that I love and then three wool table rugs. I just love her work, plus she's such a nice person.

For more inspiration I have a prim yahoo group that loves prim and the members are all so talented, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/primitivefolkartquilting/

Barn door hex

I saw a pic of a painted barn door with this design in an old copy of Country Living so I was inspired to make this quilt. Needle turn applique and then I machine quilted it.

Jeanne, how nice that I inspired you to sign up for Sue Spargo's BOM for 2007, haven't decided yet if I'm going to, have her Union Square yet to do, but I hate missing out on anything new from her, she's so "out of the box", right up my alley.

A project and a wildlife picture

This is a wool project I just started from McCall's Vintage quilts. I do love working with wool.

And since you all seemed to like the pic of Sidney and her deer friend, here's one more, they were on Animal Planet, was able to take a video of the deer grooming Sidney and it was too cute.

Passions

I have two passions, quilting of course and photography, especially wildlife.

The first pic is of a quilt called Stars, Stars, Stars, hand appliqued and then machine quilted by a friend of Jan Patek, this was in Jan's Porch Swing book, wanting to make one in wool. I have gone crazy for wool except the expense of wool is stopping me at the moment.

The second pic is of our special cat Sidney and her deer friend, he is a wild white tail buck who came around for several years and became very attached to Sidney. I have some wonderful, one of kind pictures of this special relationship, don't want to tell you he was shot by a hunter, breaks my heart and soul.

Walnut Ink Crystals

Libby asked about using the walnut ink crystals. I also have tried tea and coffee for a more aged or darker look, but the walnut really makes a change in the darkness of the fabric. It doesn't smell, but it will wash out if not heat set. Some people actually put their fabric in the oven at a low setting, but I would think just drying it in the dryer would be fine and be so much safer. You just mix up 1/2 teaspoon to a cup of warm water and then apply, I use a paint brush. You can save the mixture or add more crystals for a darker color. There are several online shops that sell it, $6.00 for a jar which goes a long way, I bought mine on Ebay. I know htt://countrystitchesonline.com/ carries it, under supplies, second page, I also used it on this needlepunch.

Kentucky Sun

I made this quilt about two months ago, called Kentucky Sun and is based on this antique quilt from the book Kentucky Quilts. I laid out the fabrics on batting, cutting them free handed and then appliqued them using the raw edge method. So as I appliqued, I was also quilting the top. Once done, I painted the fabrics with walnut crystals to get the darker colors I was striving for.

Wildlife and quilts

With the fall weather, and snow in the upper elevations, the wildlife are starting to come down. Drove home from work to see the first of our big horn sheep coming back to the house to graze, the first pic is of a beautiful Ram. They usually stay all winter and spring grazing on our property with deer and other wildlife.

The second pic is my Cookie Cutter quilt, saw the pattern somewhere and made my own version, needle turn applique.

Ode to Jan Patek

I wish my picture showed these colors better, but so it goes, this is a quilt I designed called Ode to Jan Patek, made several years ago using all Brannock & Patek fabrics I had collected and needle turn applique with so many of her folk art motifs and then hand quilted. The background is a striped green with lots of vintage fabrics. It's a four sided quilt since it looks different from each side, hangs on my ceiling. Almost had it in one of Jan's books, but it was too hard to photograph, she sent me a note that she felt very honored by the quilt.

More of the cabin

I do have a few things in the cabin, a big antique desk to use as a cutting table.


An old Brannock & Patek fabric that I bought on Ebay for quilts for the two twin beds.

That is the big rig that moved the cabin down to our property and then another view of the cabin from our house.
The cabin is almost home in the last pic, but i was very nervous and excited since this was the most difficult part of the road.

The Feathered Star

This is the girl gang project from Jan Patek from several years ago, all hand did, took well over a year just to complete the applique and I was going to machine quilt it, did a small portion, didn't like it so I removed all the machine quilting which wasn't that much thank goodness, and am waiting to hand quilt it. I tend to do more hand quilting in the winter time. This is a huge quilt, queen size and it's hanging outside on our house for me to get a full picture.

Thanks for all the welcomes and comments, have met quite a few nice ladies in the past few days.

The cabin

Here's a few pics of the inside of the cabin/studio, has wonderful paneling, old windows, and the kicker is my boss gave me the cabin for free, just had to move it to our property. She's the best.

Prim inspiration

I love primitive quilts, dark and moody, these are two quilts I made a year or so ago, just love needle turn applique, slows me down and love the feel of the fabric in my hands with each turn of the needle. Not much for the sewing machine unless I just have too, and of course you have to use one sometimes. The first is a quilt I made for a friend who was leaving where I worked, those are signature blocks around the border and the quilt is called Tree of Friendship.




This second is a quilt I made just playing around with a checkerboard center and then hand appliqued the vines, flowers and flying geese, don't even like to make flying geese with the machine.

Why is no time for me such a big deal,

read this article today on CNN website, I had been feeling sorry for myself several days ago for never having enough time for myself, and then read this article and I'm not alone. Here is a summary of the article, women feel overwhelmed with the insatiable demands on them. Most want peace and time and having this gives one serenity and control over their lives. "If you never have any time except reactive time, things you must do for others, you never have a sense of control. You are interrupted all the time, your brain has trouble resting, chronic exhaustion, the release of stress hormones." All of this can lead to heart disease, diabetes, memory problems and God forbid fat deposits right around your waist. I can take memory loss, but fat around my waist. My point being is we, me must allow that time for rest and solitude regardless, regardless of how it affects others or we will all be quilting together in that heaven we all hope for sooner than we think. I don't know about you, but I have many quilts to make and people I want to meet and places I want to go before that happens.

Here's a quilt I'm starting to work on by Linda Brannock called the Big House.

Thought I would show you a picture of my studio cabin, was moved to our upper meadow over a year ago and haven't been able to do too much work on it except for moving some furniture into it, tearing out old carpet, but no major work yet, just getting it to this site down 5 miles from a ranch up the mountain was a feat in itself. The cabin is an old bunk house from this ranch and is so cool inside, will post more pics of that later

Primitive Folk Art Applique

Primitive quilts are my passion. I didn't really know what primitive or folk art quilts were until I was able to buy a computer up here in Montana, had always just made rather simple pieced quilts, but at the time I knew I was looking for my look and a type of quilting that gave me more pleasure. And then, oh my God, I found Brannock & Patek, love at first sight from their patterns to their fabrics. I had found my quilting "calling." Here's a couple of prim quilts that I have made, the first is Winter Spirit, all needle turn applique, the second is Millenium Garden, also needle turn applique and the last one is the Bible Quilt, raw edge applique.

Me

I thought I would tell you all about me and my husband Jim and how we ended up in Montana, moved here 13 years ago from Texas hoping to escape the rat race and find solitude, a slower pace of living and enjoy the beauty and wildlife of this beautiful state. We live just outside of Yellowstone National Park on 20 acres with unbelieavable beauty and wildlife. We've never looked back or thought about making less money, or living with mountains of snow in the winter time. The pic is of one of our visitors, he made it into the house one night, that is a whole other story. Another post. And a pic of Tom Miner where we live.

Toothache

I have one, and my dental appointment isn't until friday, I'll be perturbed if it's the crown that was just put on.

Here's another Sue Spargo quilt I did, Ginger Grove in red. It's hanging in my livingroom.

Two of our largest fires exploded today, more evacuations for ranchers, a cold front is suppose to come tomorrow with cooler temps and rain, would even wish for snow to help the firefighters.

My Sunday

I finished another block today from Sue Spargo's Mercer Lane, this one was more difficult in that I was appliquing thru 3 and 4 layers of wool. Changed a few of the colors, but this is going to be another awesome Sue quilt, she has such a different way at creating quilts, so much texture and embellishment. I have a purse pattern from her that I would like to make. but me making a purse, not sure I would like doing that, so many other quilt projects ahead of that endevour.

Starting all over with blogging since I can finally publish pics,

so here goes, a pic of a quilt called a Penny Saved, made it a year or so ago for the Moda Challenge, 240 hand appliqued circles, needle turn which is mostly the type of quilts I do. All Moda fabric with most being from Brannock & Patek, my favorite fabric designers. Didn't win so it's up on my ceiling in the livingroom with Ode to Jan Patek and several others, will have to post those.

So today here in Montana, we still have multiple fires burning land, forest, homes, with the valley filled with smoke, so thankful to be safe. This other pic is of a man who had to lay in the river while the fire jumped the river and the whole time a robin floated in the river next to him and he had the calmness to take this awesome picture.

Okay, I don't know why the quilt pic is so small, will figure this out later. Help Dawn!

Tired of summer, hard to quilt with so many chores to do and work,I'm a nurse, drive 80 miles a day, a sick husband, four cats and wildife to watch over. Feeling sorry for myself today, never enough time for me or feeling selfish, can't decide.

Love Sue Spargo's work, working on her Mercer Lane, pic to come, lots of applique and wool.